


My chains are real

by bubblegumgirl



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Alternate Universe, Hurt!Steve, Kidnapping, M/M, Mental Health Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 20:56:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2284218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bubblegumgirl/pseuds/bubblegumgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years ago, Steve Rogers was kidnapped by terrorist and arms dealer, Justin Hammer.<br/>Two weeks ago SHEILD raided Hammer's compound.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My chains are real

**Author's Note:**

> Hey :) so this is a story I've been working on for a while, i plan to make it a whole big series, but knowing me, that could take a while, if i even get around to it at all. 
> 
> I took a few artistic liberties with their ages, Steve's superhuman abilities and the timeline. Steve was never frozen, he was born in modern times and the super soldier stuff happened when he was like, 20-something. 
> 
> thanks for reading, feedback is appreciated.
> 
> edited, but still not beta'd

“Steven Rogers, aka Captain America. Born July 7th, 1977 to Sarah and Joseph Rogers, both deceased. Enlisted in the army at the age of 24 after completing a degree in Art History. After 3 years he was recruited for an experimental new team, details of which we are apparently not authorised to know.”

“I really don’t like hearing those words,” Natasha sighed, “any idea what “experimental” means?”

“As far as they would tell us, no genetic or chemical tampering of any kind. So my best guess would be just a fuck load of training, fighting, weapons, anti-interrogation, that sort of thing. Nothing we haven’t come across before,” Director Fury answered. Natasha could see the unhappy twist to the man’s mouth, he hated not knowing all the information. Specialised training didn’t fully explain why Shield couldn’t get a full answer from these people. The army had training regimes everywhere, some more controversial than others, so what made this team so special it had to be classified above Shield’s level?

“So what has he done to end up here?” Clint asked.

Natasha looked at the monitor showing the camera feed from the interrogation room. The screen showed a man sitting at the shiny metal table, his hands resting on top, handcuffs clearly visible on his wrists. He was handsome, in a wholesome American kind of way, all blonde hair and blue eyes with plenty of muscles filling out the SHIELD regulation clothes. There was something odd about his body language that made it hard for Natasha to read him. He wasn’t fidgeting like most people would after an hour waiting by themselves, when their nerves or even boredom kicked in, but he wasn’t overly calm either.

“Five years ago, he disappeared while on a three day leave, when he didn’t report back, his team reported him missing. They looked for him, but no one found anything to suggest where he’d gone. Two days ago we found him among nine other people reported missing when we raided Justin Hammer’s compound.” Fury handed Natasha a thick folder, Clint leaned over her shoulder to read it too. “There’s a lot of messed up shit in that file.”

“You’re not kidding,” Clint shook his head. “I mean, we knew Hammer was crazy, but this is way further off the reservation than I thought.”

“Why was he kept until last?” Natasha asked.

“He wasn’t. Sitwell went in there the two hours after we got back to base and he got nothing. And I mean nothing, he didn’t say a word or bat an eyelid.”

“Why are we bothering with him at all?” Natasha asked, “What does he know that we need to know?”

“According to the other captives and Hydra members, everything.”

“Was he in on it?” Natasha frowned at the monitor. He didn’t seem the type.

“Not as far as we can tell. Hammer kept everything on a need to know basis, even from his lieutenants, but they all said that Rogers was there in every meeting. Five years of inside access like that and you pick up a few things. We need the information we think he has enough that we don’t have time to soften him up with rookies.”

“So we’re your last resort?”

“ _You’re_ our second last resort. I’m not sure why Barton’s here.”

“He follows me around sometimes, like a puppy.”

“It’s fun watching her scare the junior agents,” Clint grinned.

“How do you want to play this?” Fury asked, firmly ignoring Clint.

“I don’t know enough about him to do anything other than the classics. Once I get a feel for him I can change it up, but for now we’re going to have to stick with good cop, bad cop.”

“Shotgun bad cop!!” Clint yelled before racing out of the room and into the hallway.

Fury raised an eyebrow questioningly at Natasha.

“If he beats me to the door, I can’t take his claim on playing the bad cop.” Natasha shrugged and followed Clint.

 

-*-*-

 

Natasha opened the door and stepped into the harshly lit room, Clint following close behind. Rogers turned to look at them immediately, his gaze following Natasha as she walked closer to the table while Clint chose to stand at the back of the room. Natasha placed the keys for the handcuffs on the table and pushed them towards Rogers. A brief glance was all they earned, his gaze immediately came back up to look at her. His posture hadn’t changed at all from the picture on the monitor they had been looking at earlier, neither had his expression.

“Go ahead,” Natasha nodded to the keys, “they look tight.”

After a pause, Rogers reached out and took the keys, unlocking the cuffs around his wrists. They had been tight, Natasha could see the red marks where they had dug into the skin, but he didn’t rub them like most people did, simply rested his hands back on the table, the same position they had been in before.

“My name is Agent Romanov, behind me is Agent Barton. We work for a branch of the government called SHIELD, stands for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, and Law Enforcement Division. Bit of a mouth full, you can see why we use the short version.” She put the file on the table between them, just like the keys, it gained nothing more than a glance before Steve’s gaze came back to her. “In this file we have everything we know about the man called Justin Hammer and the terrorist organisation called Hydra, all our research, official records, and testimonies from the other people he was holding. You can read it if you want.” Natasha pushed the file closer to Steve. He didn’t take it, didn’t even look at it. “Aren’t you curious to know what happened to the other people you were with? The other ones Hammer was holding hostage?”

“Protocol dictates you have to treat them, interview them and then let them go,” Rogers said.

“Actually, protocol says that we can hold them if we believe they had connections to illegal activity.”

“Not indefinitely. Not without charging them.”

“Unless we classify them as a material witness. Then that decision is left up to a judge.”

Rogers levelled his gaze at her, “Is that why I’m still here?”

“I think we both know it’s a lot more complicated than that, Captain Rogers,” Natasha smiled, “But I imagine you’d be used to dealing with complications. Living as a prisoner isn’t easy, especially when Justin Hammer is the one holding you captive.”

Rogers stayed silent.

“A lot can happen in a situation like that, people can be forced to make choices, do things they wouldn’t normally do, and lines get a little fuzzy. Compromises like that can keep you alive, for a while at least.”

“You think I was involved.” It wasn’t a question, didn’t need to be.

“I think that it would give a lot of people convenient explanations to a lot of problems,” Natasha said, “Plus an easy scapegoat.”

“I wasn’t aware one was needed.”

“Not right now,” she allowed, “but we’re missing a lot of the pieces still. Who knows what will happen when we find Hammer’s files. A whole lot of information is going to come into the light, and a whole lot of people are going to be pulled along with it.” Natasha leaned forward, “You know how this works, Rogers, cooperation now will go a long way when it all comes down.”

“I had nothing to do with the business side of Hammer’s organisation.”

“Then how the fuck are you still alive?” Clint cut in.

“Barton,” Natasha frowned disapprovingly at him.

“What was it? You give good head or something?”

“Barton! You are out of line.” Natasha glared at him.

Rogers finally looked over at Clint, his gaze barely resting on him before returning back to Natasha. It was a very polite dismissal.

“I don’t give a damn about the line, Romanov,” Clint sneered, walking over to them, “You want to play nice and make friends with Hammer’s little pet, be my guest. But I'm not going to wait for him to cough up the information when it damn well pleases him. I want to know what makes him so goddamn special that Hammer would keep him around for five years.” He sat down in the other chair, leaning back in it, “So go on then, enlighten us. And why you’re at it, why don’t you also tell us why he trusted you with information he didn’t even tell his lieutenants. Hammer was more paranoid than Howard Hughes, and yet he handed you information on a fucking silver platter.”

Rogers stared at Clint calmly.

“You know what,” Clint growled, “you better start talking before we decide that playing nice isn’t worth the trouble anymore.”

The corner of Rogers’ mouth twitched slightly, he looked almost amused at what Clint had said.

“Do you have ways of making me talk, Agent Barton?”

“Oh he has a sense of humour, look at that,” Clint scoffed. “That’ll really come in handy for you when they start attaching the electrodes.”

Rogers’ expressed hardened back into the calm, neutral mask he’d worn when they walked in the room, “You want to know what made me “special”, Agent Barton? You want to know why I lasted for five years when no one else made it past two?” Rogers leaned forward slightly, his gaze sharpening and focussing on Clint with an intensity that made Clint lean back in surprise. “I am alive, Agent Barton, because in five years, I never broke.”


End file.
